Yes, the Pugs would surely reward that sort of thing. Let's not buy into the idea that to be world class we must ape everything New York does - after all the Lenox looks strangely like King George Square, a local, vaguely historicist, mid-'90s "fear of heights" cube.
There's no reason why a tower has to look like a podium - they're visually differentiated anyway, so run with it. Tall buildings are in context for big cities, yet the podium at Market Wharf clearly holds its own in terms of mass as it plays off of it. The tower is lighter and soars to match the height of other local towers, and the podium is solid and of red brick and matches the surrounding buildings.
Tower/podium is a more dynamic arrangement than dumpy little cubes and Toronto has moved on from the thinking of the June Rowlands/Mel Lastman era. Don't drag us back there, please!